Solace
by Deep Color
Summary: Updated with author's final note.
1. The Deal

**I'm back, b!t(#s::Insert Evil Laughter: Anyway, please read from top to bottom again, as I've made tons of changes. Thank you, and please review.**

**Note: **Due to adjustments, I am still withholding the 6th chapter of Solace. It is still in the works in my hard drive and will only be uploaded if this project gets enough positive response from readers.

**Solace**

By Deep Color

Chapter 1: The Deal

"Necklace, huh…" Ban.

"And that which sums to money enough to last you until you're wrinkled and old." Hevn.

"So, that's it? _It's too easy_…" Ban killed the light of his cigarette on the glass ashtray in front of him.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you, Ban. After all, this is _the _necklace, you know."

"Che. I don't even know about it. It's not that popular."

Hevn sighed. "Well if your pants can't handle it, you know there are a few others in line for the job... Now if you'll excuse me, I wish to use my time in more productive affairs than with the Prima Donna I'm wasting it on right now. Bye."

As Hevn stood, the Honky Tonk bells chimed in its usual disposition when someone entered. "Ah, Kazuki-san," Hevn sounded poisonously—almost threateningly, Ban noted—cheerful as she called out the man's name.

"Good morning, Hevn-san – Paul – Natsumi," he walked over to the beaming agent. "How is the mission coming?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful and interested.

The blonde's eyes widened as the implication of his words hit her. "So you've agreed to do it, then?" she asked, unable to contain the delight in her voice.

"Agreed to do what? Don't tell me you came to _him _first before me… I'm the original Get Backer!" Ban grimaced grumpily and loudly for everyone to hear, but without even bothering to look up at any of them. "Oh, and good morning," he added acidly.

Kazuki turned to the general direction of Ban, cheeks subtly flushed. He had avoided greeting the man on purpose—such formalities would be dismissed anytime soon, anyway (albeit unwillingly, on his part), what with this crazy assignment and all…

"I just _knew_ you'd take it! You're the best, Kazuki! Now, we should be getting ready to go…" Hevn chattered on, but no one was listening. Kazuki simply reserved single-worded replies in dull submission to her whims.

After her long ranting about how she'd been scheming things in her mind for the _longest _time, Ban spoke.

"What, is it Ignore-Mido-Ban-and-Be-Happy-For-the-Rest-of-Your-Life Day? What is this bull about going shopping?" he demanded.

Kazuki's eyes were downcast, unwilling to meet anyone's, as if fearing the scrutiny that automatically came with it.

Hevn rolled her eyes. "You still gonna take the job I offered you? Coz I heard something about Ginji breaking some _preeeeetty _expensive stuff of Clayman's last week… Gee, I wonder how poor Gin-chan will pay for it…"

Ban paused, momentarily stunned by the question and the decision-making it involved. He weighed his chances and options, if he had any, and then blurted out, "Agh, fine, fine! I'm taking it!"

The wide smile spreading on Hevn's lips probably did not indicate good meaning to his decision. Ban's eyes narrowed at the sly woman, trying to squeeze the details out of her. Nothing came, except a blunt, careless, "Thanks, Ban, I owe you!"

---

"Ban-kun, come on in, I have a pre-job gift for you." Hevn said, after having searched for Ban all over the place. If her wide grin was again an indicator of mischief, Ban refused to delude himself with false delight at the prospect of a 'gift'.

As she led him by the shoulders into the Honky Tonk, Ban lazily commented, "If it's not cancellation papers, I'm not excited."

Hevn shook her head and opened the door for him.

Ban had formulated several possible 'gifts' in his head. He liked to believe it was a meaty down payment; or if not, some announcement that he was to be disguised as a filthy rich man on this job, allowing for use of anything five-star, free of charge. However, he was faced with disappointment. A happy kind of disappointment, that is.

"Oh my go- WHO'S THAT!" He asked the blonde agent, trying to whisper his sudden excitement to her.

"Make a guess."

"Can't be Koda Kumi, can it?" Ban asked stupidly.

There was a hot babe sitting on a Honky Tonk stool, drinking something that looked like hot chocolate. She wore a figure-hugging, backless midnight-blue dress with three-inch stiletto shoes of the same color. Her long, brown hair cascaded down her back, some locks draped over the shoulder to rest in front of her, while some stray strands were tucked behind her ears, which had been the home of white crystalline chandelier earrings.

Long… _brown_ hair… Ban immediately felt the air being knocked out of his lungs, rendering him speechless for a good few seconds as the hard, cold truth hit him square in the face. "KA-KAZUKI!"

Mido Ban was a man of dreams—being the Jagan master ensured him a talent even he sometimes did not want. Idle moments found him dreaming the world away, uncharacteristic of him as it seemed. He often dreamt up things he knew he would never see happening in the flesh, so it came as a surprise to see a particular musing of his come to life. The hospital-nurse-dressing-incident just wasn't enough to sate his wild mind with regards to Kazuki's form in female clothing.

In addition, now that he was seeing his ultimate fantasy in the flesh, he wanted to slap himself REALLY hard in the forehead for only recognizing him now. Who would have thought Kazuki had such a deadly feminine figure, anyway? He was even beginning to think up a pickup line…

"Hai…" Kazuki's tone sounded uninterested and gloomy as he turned around to look at Ban, closing his eyes and bracing himself for all the insults he expected to come.

"Oh my GOD! Hevn, what'd you do to him? No _way_ I can function properly around that…that _thing_!" Ban said, not discretely backing off into a far wall and turning around to face away from Kazuki, not wanting temptation to get the better of him. He slowly counted to ten as he breathed in and out, trying to calm his nasty brain chemicals from kicking in. He felt, more than anything, like laughing his head off at the irony of the situation.

Hevn shot a satisfied look at a blushing Kazuki. "See? I told you, you look perfect! Now get up and get to work, both of you. Make my hard work worth it," Hevn said, forcing the two out of the Honky Tonk.

Ban was last to budge, finding his legs had turned to jelly as the goddess walked past him. "Hevn! How is this part of the job!" he demanded, suddenly remembering how little he knew of the project.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. You're not the star here, Kazuki is. You're just a 'bodyguard'. Merits you, hmm, around 25 of the total payment, don't worry."

_Well, that was gentle. _"Minus your 30 share, you mean!" Ban looked like he was ready to cry.

"I figured that's a given… But, well, come on; get your manly ass working!" Hevn slapped him on the back playfully.

Mouth slightly dropping as the whole situation registered, Ban watched her walk past him towards the exit. As if it did him any good, he bellowed angrily at the door. "Why isn't anyone telling me anything these days!"

With that, Ban headed for the door as well, silently muttering something about this job truly being a last resort, and something about Ginji being stupid and destructive and having to pay off a debt from Clayman's gallery, and hospital bills for the blonde's injuries.

---

"Care to tell me the details, princess?" Ban asked mockingly, pulling the brakes in obedience to the red light ahead.

Kazuki, his new partner, had been avoiding his gazes all day. "No thanks," he half-joked, not bothering to follow it up with any excuse for his un-Kazuki-ly behavior.

Ban ignored it. "So, by my 25 part in this assignment, you guys meant for me to be _just _a driver, is that it? Because frankly, I don't think that's much of an assignment at all," Ban did not drop his sarcasm.

Kazuki sighed an apology, surrendering to the request at hand. "Okay. Where should I begin… how much do you know already?"

Ban pretended to think deeply, then, "Hmmm, let me see… oh, _nothing_! That's right, I agreed to do something I know _nothing _of."

He rolled his eyes at the irony, briefly checking Kazuki's reaction via the mirror. "Sure, Hevn told me bits about getting a necklace back from Yokohama—where we're going to tonight—and that's it. I don't even know the client's name, status or even the _gender. _But then the pay is unbelievably big, too…Come to think of it, really big shot clients almost never show themselves…" he mused thoughtfully.

"For starters," Kazuki began, "the client's a girl. We're getting back a family-inherited necklace from the guy who runs the private casino we're going to visit tonight."

"Ooowkaaayy…"

Kazuki found that he had nothing else to say to his partner's questioning raised eyebrow. "Well, that's it… You were sent to watch out for me, I've been prohibited to bring my strings along."

"Why? Are those strings highly suspicious, do you think?"

Kazuki tried his best not to roll his eyes. _Great._ Just when Ban finally dropped his much-loved sarcasm, the silly part comes in. "No, Hevn says they're unfashionable."

Those were the magic words. Ban burst out laughing, feeling lighter than he had been feeling all day. The silliness of Hevn's reasoning played back on his head like a broken record, refusing to let up.

When Ban checked to see that he was laughing alone, he stopped. "Okay, so… any plans at all? I mean, how to go about this… We can't just _barge _in there and beg for the jewelry, you know. And frankly, I don't think he'll keep that necklace in a _casino_, of all places, so why the hell are we going there?"

"…"

"Do I have to ask the suspect himself?"

Kazuki sighed in defeat. "Promise not to laugh?"

"I don't know abou—okay, okay, I _promise,_" Ban conceded, albeit unwillingly. "How bad can it be?" he mused, more to himself than anybody.

"The plan is to get him to take me home—WATCH OUT!"

Ban swerved in the nick of time, barely missing a lamp post. It was no secret that Ban almost got them both killed because of the raw _shock_ that hit him with what he'd just heard the Strings Master say.

"_What?_" he spat out, pulling the brakes so abruptly on an empty sidewalk that inertia acted on them more forcefully than necessary. Kazuki bumped his forehead on the back of Ban's seat ungracefully.

He rubbed on the sore spot and sat up properly. "Not that I'm gonna have to do _anything_ _with _him… I.. he just—_I_ just have to make him like me and then—"

"What do you take me for, an idiot?" Ban snapped. "I know the implications of what you said. _Perfectly_."

"…"

"What do you _expect_ me to do? _Watch_ and let it _happen_?" Ban's voice was venomous. "I mean, I don't like you very much but you _/are/ _a **man** just like me. You know as well as I do that you weren't born in to the big blue world to exploit your dignity for a few million Yen. Your fuckin' dignity as a man at least. God, this is the Great Plan and you didn't even bother telling me?"

Kazuki was admittedly dumbfounded at Ban's unexpected reaction. Whether he should make it out that Ban truly, genuinely cared for him, or that his manly pride was just as high as Mt. Everest, he didn't know. Nor was he in the position to make such judgments, seeing as that he was partially at fault too.

"I-I'm sorry... I-_of course-_didn't want to tell you at first. I understand completely how you must feel about this, but… trust me. It's not that bad…at least I try not to make it too bad." He said the last part weakly to himself, wondering if he was speaking the truth.

Ban looked like he was witnessing someone swallowing a live octopus. "Not _that_ bad? _Not that bad? _For Heaven's holy sake, Ito Maki, _are you out of your goddamned mind_? Or is it just that you're just _/so/ _desperate to get laid that you're actually doing this out of your own free accord? I know Juubei's been out somewhere, but you didn't have to—"

"I'd appreciate it if you stopped disrespecting me for once in our lives," Kazuki warned through gritted teeth, his eyebrows furrowing in what was a mixture of hurt and attempts at self-preservation

Ban clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth like he usually did when he was annoyed for being held back when he had more to say. He chewed on his lower lip in frustration, eyes still bloodshot alert.

"I didn't want to be in on this any more than you did, Ban."

Suddenly, the clock on his car that read 7:30 PM seemed like the most interesting invention of the millennium. He kept his eyes glued to it so he wouldn't have to look at the human being he just hurt. After a few silent moments, he let out a thick, heavy sigh of defeat. "I know."

_/to be continued_

Yeah, I know. It's so-so quality. Not as exciting. But hang on; I've got the next revised chapters in line! Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, please drop a review if you read this. You know, credit for my hard work?


	2. The Prelude

I had lots of visitor hits for the first chapter, but I wonder why I only got 3 reviews? I feel so sad. Really, I do. :-

-

**Solace**

_-Chapter 2: The Prelude-_

-

Before they entered the casino, a little past 9 PM, Kazuki stopped Ban. "A little briefing," he showed Ban the picture of their subject, Ikeda Hibiki. He was a rich and rather handsome man of around 25. Noteworthy were the expensive jewelry hanging all over his body. "He's bound to be in there. That's 99 percent sure."

"What's the 0.1 percent for?"

Kazuki shook his head. "I, uh… just feel like he's 0.1 percent not there. …Well, okay, it's actually just wishful thinking, but…" Ban snorted at Kazuki's blabbering. He didn't know the Ms. Japan title holder for poise was capable of showing apprehension.

"What kind of bodyguard leaves his boss? Don't you watch any of those mafia flicks at all?"

Kazuki shook his head in exasperation at the lame cheer-up joke, mentally commenting how heavy his head felt with all the hair spray. "If I successfully get him to take me home…" Kazuki shivered at the thought. "_Be sure_ to follow us."

Ban paused a moment to calculate the veracity in his partner's last few words. He had, in fact, been thinking just a while ago about Kazuki's _real _physical strength. Because it always seemed to him that apart from the fancy strings and techniques, Kazuki was not much of a fighter. Or at least, a _mano y mano_ fighter.

"…I can't handle his thugs all by myself with my weapons sleeping in Hevn's hands and with these horrible clothes on, not to mention having my mind full with getting that necklace back," he said, looking down at how pathetic he's gotten. He bit his lower lip and wrinkled his nose in mixed annoyance and embarrassment.

Fuuchouin's last heir, a transvestite…he could almost imagine his mother's expression upon seeing him like this. Well, not that his father didn't go through wearing kimonos and being all feminine like he was once as well…

"Why _are _your weapons with Hevn?" Ban asked, sincerely clueless this time.

Kazuki tried to keep a straight face and sighed for courage, as he admitted, "She says they're unfashionable."

Ban snorted ungentlemanly and fumbled for a change of topic, lest he start teasing Kazuki for his 'frown-worthy sense of fashion', as he imagined Hevn would have said it. "You worry too much. And Ikeda's such a pretty face, you might actually want to consider sleeping with him," Ban teased.

"I'd be careful to follow your advice, thank you," Kazuki sneered falsely. Then he added, more to himself than to anyone else, "It's all over once he finds out I'm not a girl."

"Well, I'm sure he'd still want you even after he finds that out," Ban commented half-heartedly, earning him a subtle glare from Kazuki.

"Anyway, once you're in his house, coax him into showing you his jewelry collection and maybe drug him to sleep with this, so he doesn't get a chance to do funny things," he took out a container of what looked like sleeping pills from the compartment in his car, then handed it to his partner.

"Sleeping pills? You take sleeping pills?" Kazuki couldn't help but ask.

Ban felt his cheeks flushing, thankful that the night had been dark enough to hide it. "Yeah, well, there are nights when I stay awake, thinking about stuff, until 5 in the morning if I don't take these…"

"I never imagined…"

Ban cut him off before the subject went out of hand. "Anyway, as I was saying, you can drug-overdose him then take that son-of-a-bitch-of-a-necklace. Maybe you could go unnoticed. I'll be waiting with my car outside the parking lot near his mansion, got that?"

"Right. I hope it's as easy as that, though," Kazuki said.

Ban gave him an encouraging squeeze on the shoulders without looking at him as they entered the underground casino called Chang'An, owned by none other than their target, Ikeda. It was a well-hidden casino in the heart of Yokohama, frequented and protected by politicians, the zaibatsu, the elitists and the like. The media, together with the government, knew about it, of course, but they chose to turn a blind eye on the establishment.

The place was packed with groups of middle-aged men and young female escorts. Ban signaled for him to go look for the subject. "I'll be watching," he reminded, and gave Kazuki a meter's head start before trailing behind to follow him.

The Strings Master had to keep reminding himself about concealing his identity, and tried best as he could to stop himself from hitting anyone at all tonight. Occasionally, there were those who 'accidentally' bumped into him and asked for his number; and there were the perverts who were grabbing his ass and padded busts, blaming it on the huge crowd squeezing them together. Ban saw all of this and was almost ready to stand and do something, but wisely decided against it for identity-concealing purposes.

"What's with that fashion sense? She looks like… a hag," Ban chanced a glimpse of the woman who just passed by him, talking to a girl friend about "the wuss in blue at three o'clock", which turned out to be none other than his partner.

Ban just _had to_ raise an eyebrow then. The last comment was sure to get Hevn burning up in unfathomable fury. Then, he decided, a little prank wouldn't really do much to mess this job up… "Hag? If you must know… we're together," Ban lied proudly, barely controlling the big idiotic grin that threatened to grace his lips upon seeing the reactions on the girls' faces as they moved away from him, looking at him in mixed pity and disgust.

On the other side of the world, "Hey, pretty-face, who're you looking for?" said one anonymous guy.

Kazuki cleared his throat and tried to sound like a woman, which he was pretty good at. "My boyfriend. Ah, there he is." Kazuki pointed at Ban, seated at a distant table, looking at them. Ban glared at the man so fiercely that the man just slipped away from Kazuki unnoticed.

They both smiled to themselves in satisfaction.

The night progressed and there was no sign of Ikeda anywhere. Much later, Kazuki ordered a drink at the mini-bar and prayed that his impromptu plan would work.

He took a sip at the delicious liquor and spat it out ungracefully at the counter, complaining about how awful it was. "I paid for first class liquor and you give me this! Who told you to sell this garbage here?" Kazuki shouted, acting as though it was greatly despicable that he had to drink this 'bad' liquor, which was, in fact, very good.

"Well, the owner thinks highly of this brand, ma'am… and---" the bartender cowered at Kazuki's flaming aura.

_Bingo. _"Then bring out the owner! I want to speak to him!" despite being stared at by a lot of people, Kazuki was glad that his acting was paying off.

"Miss, what's with the bitter look? Anything the matter?" said an unwanted voice.

Kazuki turned around to look at the source of the voice, ready to give him a punch or two on the face, or better, a kick on the shin, for interrupting. Although, things tonight had a tendency to turn down logical assumptions. He most especially didn't expect his attacker to be a handsome man. Especially not _his _handsome man. He almost yelped for joy when he saw that it was no less than Ikeda Hibiki. He composed himself and conjured up a quick theatric lie, "My man just broke up with me, and this guy is bitching about the wine, insisting that it was good, even if it isn't."

He shot a look at the bartender, whose body language, in turn, tried to tell him that the man he was talking to was _the_ owner he wanted to see. As if Kazuki didn't know in secret.

"I can't believe anyone had the backbone to break up with such a stunning beauty," he said, sitting beside Kazuki. Kazuki jerked his head innocently to see if Ban was aware that their subject showed up already. He wasn't.

"It's that guy," Kazuki said, pointing at Ban, acting all hurt and irritated. He hoped that his Impromptu Plan Part B would work as well as the first one had.

"Why, he's not _that_ charming at all. I don't see why you even had a relationship with him," Ikeda said, irking Kazuki with the open arrogance. "Anyway, my name is Hibiki. Ikeda Hibiki," he announced proudly. "And yours?"

"Ka–Kasumi…" he didn't want to give his true identity. "Midou Kasumi," he lied, and thought of how nice the alias sounded. At that time, he didn't feel up to berating himself for the embarrassing combination. Hibiki reached out to shake Kazuki's hand. Kazuki shook it, and the kiss Hibiki placed on his hand sent goose bumps running through his skin.

Kazuki chanced a glance at Ban. He was still not aware. "Hibiki-kun, would you mind being my _boyfriend_ for a while?" Kazuki asked.

"Huh…S-sure…" he replied, not sure what Kazuki was up to. Even if for just a moment, Kazuki gloated to himself about successfully rendering Ikeda off his cool façade.

"Good." Kazuki dragged him to the poker table directly in front of Ban. Ban still wasn't looking. He was too busy staring at the big-busted woman flirting with him.

Kazuki placed his arms around Ikeda's neck in a suggestive manner, and it didn't take a long while before Ikeda realized what Kazuki was 'up to'. He thought Kazuki wanted to make Ban jealous, while the real aim was to simply make him notice the big fish Kazuki had just caught.

Then gradually, Ban started glancing towards their direction. When Ikeda saw this, he decided it would help if…

Kazuki froze at the thoughtless kiss his suspect was placing on his mouth. He wanted to push him away, send him flying to a corner of the room, run to the nearest sink and rinse his mouth. Kazuki was a man of tradition and values, and in his head, he liked to believe that people still retained the value of modesty even in the new millennium. _No such luck, Kazuki, _he thought to himself

But duty had always had a strong hold on him, so he had no choice but to ride on with the kiss. He tried to convince himself that it was all worth it since Ban was definitely looking at them now.

If that death glare wasn't directed at them, he'd be damned.

Kazuki gracefully slipped away from Ikeda's smooches. Both of them secretly looked at Ban. "It's working, isn't it?" Hibiki said.

"You bet it is," Kazuki said, sounding happy, though he felt a strong need to just throw up. This was getting more ridiculous by the moment. "Want to drink?" he said, just so he could lure him away from tangling his body with his own.

"Sure. My treat. See, I own this place," he bragged.

"Oh, you do?" Kazuki tried to sound surprised. "You're pretty young… Yet you must be very rich. J-judging by the… those jewelry hanging from all over your body."

"Oh, this is _nothing_. Kind of a fashion statement—I collect all sorts of jewelry, you know. Investing for the future, people say, but I'm so rich, I think my money won't run out until my son's great grandson finishes college at a prime university," he laughed at his own joke.

Now, if people thought of Kazuki as a solid manners-and-etiquette guru, they were thinking wrong. His current dilemma was proof to the existence of his carefree, good-humor-loving side. Kazuki was torn between laughing at the lameness of the joke and snorting at the stupidity of said pun, but neither of two options suited his maiden-in-distress role, so he decided against both. He took a sip from his cup to conceal any expression that might have slipped from his face.

Ikeda recovered from his laughing fit smoothly. "Here, take it as a reminder of when we first met," he said, removing a golden bracelet from his hand and put it on Kazuki's left wrist.

"Oh, wow…for a complete stranger like me? …Jeez, your girlfriend must be the happiest woman alive," Kazuki said, going on with the hopefully-leading charade.

"Don't worry about it… Besides, I kind of like you…And did I mention that I'm single?" he said, clasping Kazuki's thigh in secret under their table. Kazuki couldn't help the involuntary widening of his eyes, though he was quick to recover from the shock. Instead, he focused on trying to look as if he didn't mind it at all and even liked it.

"What a coincidence… I'm single too…" Kazuki strived to make himself sound seductive. He brought out his leg from under the table and showed him more of his perfect legs by moving the slit of the dress a little bit. Ikeda, of course, took the bait, and Kazuki was half expecting him to rape him then and there, when Ikeda said, "Will you be attending the party tomorrow?"

"What party?" Kazuki blurted out rather quickly, disappointment slowly crawling to his face as he failed again.

"We're having a summer party tomorrow at my place. Exclusive for Chang'An members. And, of course, it's night swimming. You know how people are, they want to get together after some fun…especially at night. You do the math."

"But I'm not a member…"

"Well, I was thinking of making an exception of you. You're special." Kazuki wanted to kiss him then out of happiness. It was the perfect chance…

"Oh well, that's sweet of you…Great, you can expect me to be there, "

"I don't see why you would think otherwise anyway, sweetie… " he said. Ikeda tried to kiss him again when Kazuki stood up suddenly and said, "I'll be seeing you there. Anything in particular I have to wear to comply with the dress code or something?"

"Actually, I'm thinking you could be my date for the night. You can wear something of a formal dress. I bet anything would look good on that body anyway. And we do have a swimming party. I'd _love_ it if you'd take a dip in the pool with me," Ikeda said.

For some reason, Kazuki felt he was still a little unconvincing. Damn his thoughts, because then, he mindlessly albeit unwillingly circled his arms around Ikeda's neck and brushed his lips with his target gently in one stroke. That was the worse cover-up he could have possibly thought of, at least on his part. On the contrary, though, the subject seemed to be quite enjoying it, as he gave Kazuki a once over, focusing especially on _those _spots…

He left Ikeda hanging in the air, staring at his rear as he swayed his hips from side to side as he walked.

Ban followed Kazuki out the door after some time as he was still kind of groggy from the alcohol a woman made him drink. When he got out, Kazuki was standing with his back to him, a hand pressed on his forehead as if he had just slapped it and forgot to retrieve said hand.

"You were doing a great job," Ban said blankly.

"We had to kiss…!" Kazuki reminded him, not at all pleased.

"Well, that'll help him like you some more… And I think you liked it, didn't you?" Ban accused childishly.

"That's not helping the situation at all, Ban," Kazuki said, trying to calm down. "It's tomorrow. We have to finish this tomorrow. He has a party for the members of this casino and I was invited."

"I know. I was also invited by a woman who looked a lot like Ikeda too… I was talking to her a while ago about this place and she invited me…"

"…"

"…?"

The longhaired man discretely chewed on his lower lip—something he did when he was apprehensive about something and didn't want people to notice "…Oh gods, I can't remember meeting a more vulgar man in my entire life..." Ban easily fit the description of 'vulgar man', but he knew the Strings Master was not going on about him. He watched as Kazuki resorted to slowly pacing back and forth, trying to sort his spiraling thoughts. "Oh, what if they catch me, there's bound to be an alarm after I get that necklace…if they catch me, I–"

"Hey, calm down already, okay?" Ban held Kazuki by the shoulders and shook him a little. "You're going with your weapons tomorrow—Hevn can rot with her fashion sense." Ban reminded him. "…And I'm going to be there too."

Kazuki took his time staring at Ban, but not really looking. "…Okay," Kazuki nodded his head slowly and closed his eyes to clear his head of unwanted thoughts. As he took in the cool, crisp night air through his nostrils, he felt a little unwanted moisture escaping his eyes, forming the start of what would be tears if he thought more about the doom he condemned himself to by agreeing to do this mission.

He had found comfort at the thought that he would have his weapons by him. Somehow he felt helpless without them. Or without his partner, who, upon opening his eyes, he saw was now currently staring at him like he had grown an extra toe right in the middle of his forehead for acting so weird and disoriented, which he was most probably not used to seeing.

Kazuki closed his eyes again. He was tired. He leaned his head on the lamp post beside him and tried to rest for a while. "Thank you… for being really nice," Kazuki whispered, and it would have been completely missed if Ban wasn't directly standing in front of him. He meant every word he said.

Now, Ban would normally love to destroy solemn moments such as this by disproving the longhaired man about his being nice, but strangely, he felt like he was over the urge of such immaturity, even if only for tonight. So instead, his hands and mouth decided to move without his pride's permission and he started reassuring him instead, "Hey… it's my job," while tucking a lock of loose hair behind Kazuki's ear in the gentlest way he knew.

Kazuki's personal-space-defense-system alerted him to try to move back and away from the ministrations, feeling all the more being played at, because he knew Ban wouldn't be as kind to him if he weren't dressed as a girl as he currently was. More importantly, their current proximity was a little too close for anything less than what others would see as intimate…

"Had to remind myself back there of your gender," Ban snorted, half-comically, half-serious, as he stepped a little away from Kazuki, sensing the tension in the man. "Almost forgot."

Kazuki managed to give him the tiniest hints of a smile to acknowledge that it was okay, although he really was not used to Ban treating him like… a _normal _personfor once in the course of their lives. Nevertheless, it was a happy thought to carry.

Kazuki felt relieved and assured that tomorrow would go well. Ban was there, after all. And he was able to handle far more difficult jobs before, didn't he? He could almost laugh at how silly he had been for even worrying. He was a good fighter. He was a Fuuchouin.

And most of all, Ban would be there to save him if things had turned the wrong way, wouldn't he?

"Let's go home," Kazuki said, mildly tensed expression starting to soften.

Ban let out a small sound of a laugh and opened the door of his Beetle for Kazuki. "After you, Madam," he faked a chauffer accent jokingly.

The man in the dress quickly fell asleep before they were even five minutes away from Chang'An. Ban completely forgot to ask him for where he lived, owing to the guilty fact that he had unnecessarily busied himself with staring at Kazuki and watching him fall asleep through the car mirrors.

"_Daiji na mono wa kokoro de minakucha, fuku kaze ni bookmark 'Santegujuperi' ga password…" _he thoughtlessly hummed to the tune of the skippy pop song on the radio without really singing the lyrics, for if he had, he might have had to slap himself if he dared make the connection. Thankfully, he was not paying attention to the lyrics, for he had his mind on something else.

It just kept replaying in his head, the bottomless thoughts of what might happen to his partner in the course of this mission. Sure, at some point he thought his damn Smiley Face of a partner deserved it. But still, it was too much. Surely there were other ways…

Ikeda's picture beamed at him as it hung lifelessly on his rearview mirror. Something about that sparkly-white-toothed smile, the brilliant and cunning blue eyes, and the overall handsomeness of his face was just highly unsettling…

The signboard of the Honky Tonk greeted him much faster than he had expected to see it. There was less traffic at night, after all. He turned to the backseat and momentarily made it his mission to wake his partner up. But it would be a shame to have to wake the beautiful man up, he decided, so he parked in front of the now closed Honky Tonk and decided further that a night-out in his car wouldn't be so bad. Besides, Ginji was nowhere to be found and it was a little lonely to be by himself…

He guided a half-sleeping Kazuki to lay down properly on the backseat of his car and removed the killer shoes for him. His feet had red sore spots all over, and he couldn't help but shake his head at the funny realization that he had just seen Kazuki in heels. For some reason, he thought it was really funny. He shook his head again to rub the mirth off his soul and brought out a spare blanket he had in the car to lend to Kazuki.

"Sweet dreams, girlfriend," he whispered, recalling the little joke he played on the jealous girls from tonight. He found that he couldn't stop himself when he suddenly ran the back of his hand on the man's soft cheek, if only to check if it was real. Kazuki shifted a little in his sleep and Ban was brought back to his senses, so he had stepped away, willing himself to forget he ever did such a brash gesture on another man.

Ban went to the driver's seat and tried hard to convince himself that this day happened at all. It was too much to fathom, starting from early morning when Hevn was pushing Kazuki to do this job, when he, Midou Ban, was wheedled by Hevn's fashion magic into thinking that Kazuki was a real girl… so few things happened today but it weighed much on Ban's gut feeling that he was almost sure that they had to be careful of the following days.

_/to be continued_

_-_

See what I meant when I said I did plot revisions? How are my characters so far? I need feedback or else I can't be sure if I'm still writing properly. So… review!

Bonus points to anyone who can name me the song Ban randomly hummed, and what I was referring to when I talked about the lyrics. Hint: The Little Prince


	3. Author's Final Note

Hello. :)

I started writing this story four years ago, uncannily finding the inspiration for cross-dressing Kazuki in a fashion boutique online. To this day, I have not gone beyond Chapter 8, and through this post express how I am not planning to continue it whatsoever. This story does not even come up to my mind anymore, except when I see unexpected (read: unrelated!) comments on my LJ, deviantart, email, and MSN asking me if I will ever update this story (even after all this time!)

So, once and for all, I will give closure to this epic disaster of mine.

First, it might be worth knowing that I am rather critical of the usage of the English language. And, upon re-reading _Solace_ two years ago, found that in my frightful innocence and newness to the world of fan-made prose, have cooked up a horrible, terrible, bone-shatteringly-frightfully written story in terms of structure, wording, and especially characterization, not to mention plot development. I want to be precise, but I don't think many would be interested in them. If you find that you may possibly want to read (for whatever reason on earth?) my comprehensive criticism of _Solace_, then you may find it after the line break.

So to be clear, it is actually based on the opinion that the fics I have written in this era are horrible that I have decided to stop writing it altogether.

I also like to think that I have improved since then, and since 2006, have adopted a different internet pseudonym and started all over again writing for the Harry Potter fandom (Harry/Draco all the way!), conveniently completely forgetting that I have written for anime at all.

Anyhow, thank you for reading this notice.

See you someplace else sometime in the future?

Li Pei Fen/Deep Color

* * *

Hello once again. So, you've decided to read this after all, huh? Take note: a huge amount of self-centered talking lies ahead.

#1) I honest-to-death, truly believe that the one and only reason people have read and hopefully enjoyed _Solace_ is because of the fact that Kazuki cross-dresses. No one probably paid attention to spelling mistakes, grammar inconsistencies, poor, poor, plebian-poor characterization, and even poorer dialogue. Come on, admit it. It's also probably the only reason I enjoyed writing it as well; and,

#2) I have utterly blasphemed Kazuki's femininity in so doing and have not respected the man-parts of his beautiful self. Tied with this is disrespect for Ban's manly pride as well. Come on, can you see him doing the things I wrote? I get goose skin when I think about it. In short, too much fan-service and quality goes out the window.

#3) Oh, the cheese-factor of it all! Seriously, I cannot believe that some people have bought the cheesiness and total fangirliiness of those 100 improbable dialogues! Again, I cannot stress enough how bad it is for a fic to have bad dialogue. It Destroys Everything, capitalized.

#4) Who the heck reads a fic with so much OCs? …and even have those OCs steal screenplay as much as the main characters? Especially with one that's named after a Yami no Matsuei character without originality whatsoever?

#5) Lastly, for you, my dear, dear reader who inspired me to write this review and is unbelievably still reading up to this point, I can't fathom how you manage to wait for four years and expect scatterbrained, plot-bunny-happy me to still go on writing about a non-existent, excessively-designed-to-the-point-of-ugliness necklace rumored to be in the mansion of some hotshot sissy who has a big sister that is so typical of anime plots to bring out his softer side, and the man and the half-man who are supposedly chasing after it but have met disaster along the way, one of which is the falling in "L" word, which I shudder to think out loud, much more to _type_.

To be clear, I am not writing this review to fish out compliments if some of you may possibly want to share any, nor is it a ploy to get attention to it while I secretly work on the next chapter so you may know I am writing it and expect an update, because, for the past 500 words, I have not been writing _Solace_. :) Actually, my sadistic/narcissistic self would love it dearly if you leave a review that agrees with my five reasons above, or with an input of your own. Be my guest.

So now, this leaves nothing but a thank you note for even reading _Solace_ at all, and giving poor-ol'-fiction-naïve-2004 me a pat on the back and making me believe that I possibly could write! Because of you, I have enjoyed my training session in the world of anime fiction, and have been relatively successful in my venture into Harry/Draco in the present.

Fare thee well, lovelies. I bid you, adieu.

Typing in the rain with a caramel macchiato in hand,

Li Pei Fen

P.S. If somehow, someone out there is thinking about it, I am sadly refraining from giving away my pseudonym in the HP world. This is to avoid embarrassment upon recognition of that 989767549th alter-ego of mine.


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